Sponsors (20)
Alters executive reorganization law to broaden plan purposes (including job cuts), redefine "executive department," permit abolition of enforcement/programs, and update review deadlines through 2026.
Official title: To amend chapter 9 of title 5, United States Code, to reauthorize the executive reorganization authority of the President and to ensure efficient executive reorganization, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 13, 2025 by James Comer · Last progress February 13, 2025
The bill preserves executive authority to reorganize agencies to reduce duplication and regulatory burdens—but doing so raises substantial risk of workforce reductions, weakened enforcement and oversight, and shifted costs that could reduce services for Americans.
Taxpayers, small-business owners, and federal workers could see agencies streamlined and burdensome rules targeted, potentially lowering compliance costs and improving efficiency by eliminating duplicative or unnecessary operations.
Federal agencies and departments retain statutory authority to pursue reorganizations through December 31, 2026, keeping executive reorganization tools available to address inefficiencies or outdated structures.
Federal employees, taxpayers, and low-income individuals face a heightened risk of reduced services and enforcement because the bill establishes a statutory goal to cut federal staffing and removes the prohibition on abolishing enforcement functions, concentrating more discretion in the executive.
More offices and programs (including those at state-level interfaces) are newly eligible for reorganization or elimination because the bill expands the definition of covered entities, increasing the number of programs and workers at risk of cuts.
Efforts to shrink the federal workforce and cut expenditures may weaken oversight capacity and increase reliance on contractors or state/local governments, shifting costs and risks to taxpayers and local authorities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Amends the statute governing executive branch reorganization plans to broaden allowable purposes (including eliminating unnecessary operations, cutting burdensome rules, and reducing federal employees), to change wording from “agency” to “executive department,” and to redefine “executive department” to cover most executive branch entities (with limited exceptions). It also removes a prohibition against abolishing enforcement functions or statutory programs, adds a new disqualifying ground for plans that would increase net federal staffing or spending, updates several cross‑references and deadlines to 2026, and makes technical citation corrections. The bill is procedural and statutory: it changes how reorganization plans are framed, who and what counts as an executive department, and the legal limits and time windows for submitting and reviewing such plans. These changes affect executive branch structures, federal employees, and the scope of what reorganizations can do (including program abolition and workforce reductions).